i just saw into the wild.

i am a target

and i must say that i can't believe how he was portrayed at the end as a kind of hero for someone who basically comitted suicide.

he was stupid. arrogant. and the antithesis of everything the authors he thought he understood spoke of. he had everything he was looking for. people loved him. people missed him. the only part i thought was really fitting was when he knew he was dead and he knew he had made a mistake. happiness is only real when it is shared (or whatever he wrote along those lines).

if it takes death for that kind of epiphany then i don't want one..what a waste of life.

joseppi

I have yet to see this but I'm really looking forward to it. I've read so many different opinions on how he was either a complete coward or totally a free spirit. I have no idea what to think since I haven't seen the movie or read the book but I have heard good things about it. And I hear the music's half-decent too.

LukinFan

Read the book- it's great! I can't wait to see the movie though.

GivenToFly982

Good take on the movie...while I thought it was a great story, it basically boils down to a rich spoiled brat kid who found out that all of his ideals wouldn't feed him in the Alaskan wilderness.

I feel for him and his family, but he's no hero. He got what was coming to him.

CitizenRick

GivenToFly982 wrote:

Good take on the movie...while I thought it was a great story, it basically boils down to a rich spoiled brat kid who found out that all of his ideals wouldn't feed him in the Alaskan wilderness.

I feel for him and his family, but he's no hero. He got what was coming to him.

Well...at least he wasn't a "cookie cutter" spoiled brat kid! I admire that he said "fuck you" to standard thinking. Many people are too scared to venture out of their comfort zone. He wasn't.

At the same time he was selfish when it came to the people that he supposedly loved... and loved him.

None of us walked in his shoes...so I will respecfully not pass judgment.

i am a target

joseppi wrote:

I have yet to see this but I'm really looking forward to it. I've read so many different opinions on how he was either a complete coward or totally a free spirit. I have no idea what to think since I haven't seen the movie or read the book but I have heard good things about it. And I hear the music's half-decent too.

i don't think he was a coward. i think he was a foolish kid who couldn't "see the forest through the trees". his ideals and way of thinking weren't bad or wrong. he was just foolish to think he could do something like that without knowing what he was doing.

when a fool plays with nature the fool will almost always die.

i can't believe how many people don't understand the power of nature and give it the respect it's due. i spent a lot of time in the ocean and from experience you would be a fool not to respect it and you would be a fool to not have fear of it..same goes for a place like alaska..

vedderfan10

My friend's son is still MIA...he's been gone four months now. Not a peep. Up and left. Gone. Parents are frantic, but still have to carry on with their lives. Saw my friend the other day, and she looks empty. Numb. Her son doesn't care that he's destroying her...I don't think much of people who just take off. Selfish.

UpSideDown

hobbes wrote:

and i must say that i can't believe how he was portrayed at the end as a kind of hero for someone who basically comitted suicide.

he was stupid. arrogant. and the antithesis of everything the authors he thought he understood spoke of. he had everything he was looking for. people loved him. people missed him. the only part i thought was really fitting was when he knew he was dead and he knew he had made a mistake. happiness is only real when it is shared (or whatever he wrote along those lines).

if it takes death for that kind of epiphany then i don't want one..what a waste of life.

i see the opposite........

go to college, get a job, make money settle down and lead the american life. thats a waste of life to me.

i am a target

Corey Erven wrote:

i see the opposite........

go to college, get a job, make money settle down and lead the american life. thats a waste of life to me.

so death is better? death at 23 or 24? what do you know about life at that age?

TheDreamIsee

CitizenRick wrote:

Well...at least he wasn't a "cookie cutter" spoiled brat kid! I admire that he said "fuck you" to standard thinking. Many people are too scared to venture out of their comfort zone. He wasn't.

At the same time he was selfish when it came to the people that he supposedly loved... and loved him.

None of us walked in his shoes...so I will respecfully not pass judgment.

I agree with you...Money does not dissolve the desire to get out and explore the world and the need to get away from everyday life - especially when you are young.

orig_long red

everyone has an opinion, yours just happens to suck.

creepingvines

i don't really get why so many people have this reaction to chris' story. he went out to find himself in his own way, and it seems like in the end, he did. he knew the risks. he decided it was worth it.

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

i never thought he was portrayed as a hero, but as a human. The movie never glorified him. And through most of the movie he seemed like a jackass or maybe even a fake.

I guess either you relate or you don't, i get why he went up there i think.

i am a target

creepingvines wrote:

i don't really get why so many people have this reaction to chris' story. he went out to find himself in his own way, and it seems like in the end, he did. he knew the risks. he decided it was worth it.

well. we can only speculate as to if he knew the risks and if he decided it was worth it. but somehow i doubt starving/poisoning himself to death was what he was going for and i doubt he thought it was worth it.

happiness is only real when shared.

that sure sounds like a man who decided that dying alone in the middle of nowhere was worth it.

NoelMichael

Hey thanks for the spoiler warning

i am a target

NoelMichael wrote:

Hey thanks for the spoiler warning

i figure the title:

I JUST SAW INTO THE WILD

would give it away.

but hey. i understand.

UpSideDown

hobbes wrote:

so death is better? death at 23 or 24? what do you know about life at that age?

Depending on the person, you could know a little or a lot.

I don't think that Chris was trying to be a hero. Maybe it was selfish, maybe it was dumb. I think he just wanted to find his own way and not just follow the formula. In the end he may have chose the wrong path, but at least he tried a different way (this alone makes him courageous). Plus, he got to live out experiences and see things that most of us never will.

nukeboot

I think there's a pretty decent chance that he was suffering from mental illness.

RIP, Chris.

muppet

I'm going to get killed for this but I thought that Vedder's songs actually detracted a lot from the film. Sean Penn seemed to do a lot of montages that were built around those songs, and there wasn't really enough stuff that was happening. I guess this is more the fault of Penn than Vedder, and I really love the soundtrack outside of the film.

It was a decent movie but at times I thought it was too heavy handed, and you can tell that it was directed by Sean Penn, who's not exactly the most experienced of directors.

CantKeepFukinUp

Either you get it, or you don't.

And to say he may have had a mental illness is bullshit. Doing what he loved, even though it was dangerous, is crazy? Sounds like any big wave surfers or extreme sportsman is mentally ill then.

nukeboot

CantKeepFukinUp wrote:

And to say he may have had a mental illness is bullshit.

You're free to have your opinion, but we'll never know, will we?

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

NoelMichael wrote:

Hey thanks for the spoiler warning

isnt there a statute of limitations on these things? the movie has been out forever

Troubled Soul

hobbes wrote:

and i must say that i can't believe how he was portrayed at the end as a kind of hero for someone who basically comitted suicide.

he was stupid. arrogant. and the antithesis of everything the authors he thought he understood spoke of. he had everything he was looking for. people loved him. people missed him. the only part i thought was really fitting was when he knew he was dead and he knew he had made a mistake. happiness is only real when it is shared (or whatever he wrote along those lines).

if it takes death for that kind of epiphany then i don't want one..what a waste of life.

How is accidentally eating an edible root that had a toxic mold on it suicide? The whole point of the movie was missed by you obviously.

Kel Varnsen

CantKeepFukinUp wrote:

Either you get it, or you don't.

And to say he may have had a mental illness is bullshit. Doing what he loved, even though it was dangerous, is crazy? Sounds like any big wave surfers or extreme sportsman is mentally ill then.

I think the guy had mental illness or is extremly dumb. I don't think doing what you love even though it is dangerous is dumb. But I think trying to do it without having any idea of what your doing is incredibly stupid. I mean from what I read this guy knew very little about how to survive out doors. You bring up big wave surfers as a comparison, but I don't think any surfer starts out doing 40 foot waves. And a big wave surfer will usually have a guy on a wave run to help them out in case of danger.

This guy went to Alaska with limited training and had no one to bail him out in case of emergency, it is totally not the same thing.

EddiE

Can I just ask one thing....would you guys have gone to see the film if Eddie hadn't've done the soundtrack?

NMyTree

hobbes wrote:

and i must say that i can't believe how he was portrayed at the end as a kind of hero for someone who basically comitted suicide.

he was stupid. arrogant. and the antithesis of everything the authors he thought he understood spoke of. he had everything he was looking for. people loved him. people missed him. the only part i thought was really fitting was when he knew he was dead and he knew he had made a mistake. happiness is only real when it is shared (or whatever he wrote along those lines).

if it takes death for that kind of epiphany then i don't want one..what a waste of life.

Maybe the story is more about appreciating what you have (family, friends , love ..etc).

People tend to take things and the people in their lives for granted and seem to lose that perspective.

Regardless of what the author/writers intended, sometimes there are good lessons, reminders and wisdoms within the story, that maybe they didn't really mean to be the main storyline or focus; but no less significant.

Qube

chris was a dick...and an overthinker. he overthought the concept of society and only grabbed the negatives (that's my take, though i din't walk in his shoes) he was selfish with relationships, but that was his right

i don't think the book or movie made him to be a hero. he had nature lust (the montages try to portray a lot of that). i don't get the suicide take, he walked into nature overconfident...not to die. he tries to save himself, but can't. In the end of the movie he seems to make peace with who his "society" self is, i don't remember if that's true in the book.

btw: love the f'n soundtrack even if some of the songs do seem like the cliff note versions

i am a target

Troubled Soul wrote:

How is accidentally eating an edible root that had a toxic mold on it suicide? The whole point of the movie was missed by you obviously.

he went out there totally unprepared to stay as long as he did. going to alaska with a bag of rice and a .22? eating plants will only get you so far and a .22 is useless when there isn't anything to shoot.

so no map. not enough supplies....brings me to call it an indirect suicide.

tie-dye lady

I'm reading the book, haven't seen the flick yet. He treckked around the lower states for, what, 2 years before going to Alaska. In any case, it's a brilliantly researched story of a person who wanted to cut himself away from what was his life to feel life down to the core for whatever that meant to him. He went there to die - figurativly or literally. To strip away to his very core and feel nature and life down to the vibrational level knowing he didn't have enough of anything to survive. He was smart enough to know he didn't bring enough yet he put his trust in nature that he would survive long enough to achieve a certain state of being and either die or be rescused. The goal of his journey, IMO, was to truly feel all and see all unembumbered by everything, anything, that his life was. He opened up to let go and in letting go he let go of his life.

Would I have read the book or seen the movie if Ed hadn't done the score? Maybe. I was drawn to it by the music and by the discussions I've read here. Would it matter either way?

i am a target

i had friends who read the book years and years ago that told me i should (i haven't yet and don't think i will). the only reason i went and saw the movie was my friend from out of town wanted to...i'm not a huge fan of the soundtrack..at all..so in the end Ed had nothing to do with me seeing it.

Colors of Musid

hobbes wrote:

and i must say that i can't believe how he was portrayed at the end as a kind of hero for someone who basically comitted suicide.

he was stupid. arrogant. and the antithesis of everything the authors he thought he understood spoke of. he had everything he was looking for. people loved him. people missed him. the only part i thought was really fitting was when he knew he was dead and he knew he had made a mistake. happiness is only real when it is shared (or whatever he wrote along those lines).

if it takes death for that kind of epiphany then i don't want one..what a waste of life.

How many people a year trek into the wilderness? How many die?
How many people get into cars? How many die? How many do they kill?

People who walk free on this earth may die. People who drive on this earth may die and may kill.

Which is worst?

The Outside Mag. reporter who wrote the book wrote that he died of a sad mistake as old as human interaction in nature. He ate the vicious historic 'LOCO' compound by assuming the seeds of a plant with edible tubers had edible seeds as well. The author said that this chemical and his low weight did him in.

A sad tragedy like a bad turn on a blind curve. He paid for his innocent mistake do you rub it in!